Desktop: New Your Library sidebar

[MattSuda]

Spotify is introducing a new Your Library sidebar in the desktop app and Web Player.

The new Your Library sidebar improves navigation and makes it easier and faster to collect and retrieve all types of content, bringing new features to desktop that you're already familiar with in the mobile app. The new sidebar is also more customizable than before to meet different preferences.

You can read more info about the new desktop experience in the Spotify Newsroom post:

➜ Spotify’s Desktop Experience Gets a Brand-New Look With Redesigned ‘Your Library’ and ‘Now Playing’ ...

This thread is your go-to destination for learning what's new, asking questions, getting help for issues you might have, as well as to share your feedback about the new Your Library sidebar for desktop. Also, do you have any tips for other users on how you are using the new Your Library sidebar? We'd love to hear them.

What's new in the Your Library sidebar?

• See your entire collection and all of the content types (not just playlists)
  
  
• Filters for your collection (Playlists, Artists, Albums, Podcasts) that can be combined with other filters (By you, By Spotify, Downloaded)
  
  
• Sort options for your collection (Recents, Recently Added, Alphabetical, Creator, Custom Order)
  
  
• Chosen filters and sort options will be remembered in the sidebar across restarts of the desktop app
  
  
• Search through your collection in the sidebar
  
  
• Pinned library items to find your favorites, faster – current limit is 4 (Playlists, Playlist Folders, Artists, Albums, Podcasts)
  
  
• Art covers are now shown in the sidebar
  
  
• Compact library layout (no art covers) is available as an option in Settings to increase content density
  
  
• Dedicated + (plus) button to create Playlists and Playlist Folders
  
  
• Flexible Sizing: A collapsed library view (with only art covers) to maximize the browsing area, a regular width view, and an expanded view for more focused library management and curation. (you can also drag to customize the size)
  
  
• In the expanded library view, you have options for list view, compact view, and a grid view. The list and compact views show you more details in 2 columns, Date Added and Last Played, and the grid view allows you to see larger art covers.
  
  
• Playlist Folders can still be expanded into the sidebar in a tree view, and now when you click on them, the sidebar only shows the Playlist Folder and what's inside for a more focused view.
  
  
• Menu option to move a playlist to a folder (with search)

Note: The Your Library sidebar experience will be the same for the most part in the Web Player. However, the Web Player does not support all of the features found in the desktop app. To be able to use all of the features, you can download the desktop app right here.

Tips to get started:

If you need a familiar experience to help you get started with the new Your Library sidebar, here's how to get it as close as possible to the old sidebar that previously only showed playlists:

• In the left "Your Library" sidebar, click on the "Playlists" filter at the top.

• Then, in the drop down menu select "Custom Order" under "Sort by". You will then see your previous playlist order and be able to move your playlists and folders like before.

• Your currently chosen filters and sort options will be remembered across restarts of the desktop app.

• If you would like to only see text in the Your Library sidebar (no art covers), go to the drop down menu and at the bottom of the menu click on "Compact" under "View as".

• Flexible Sizing: You can drag the Your Library sidebar to different sizes. Fully expand the sidebar by clicking the arrow button at the top, and fully collapse the sidebar by clicking on the "Your Library" heading to see only art covers.

• At the top, you can scroll through the different filters with your mouse scroll wheel for faster navigation when the sidebar is set to a smaller size. 

Walkthrough of the basics:

Sidebar List:

You can now see your entire collection and all of the content types (not just playlists) in the sidebar list. At the top, click on the filters to filter the content you want to see, and click on the drop down menu to change the sort order or view of the list. To create a new Playlist or Playlist Folder, click on the + (plus) button at the top right corner of the sidebar. To search through your collection, click on the search button.

Filter Options:

At the top, click on the filters to filter the content you want to see. You can scroll through the different filters with your mouse scroll wheel for faster navigation when the sidebar is set to a smaller size. 

To remove the filter, click on the X or the currently selected filter and then choose another filter to see another type of content. Having no filter selected will show all types of content mixed in the list.

• Playlists
• Artists
• Albums
• Podcasts & Shows
• These can be combined with other filters: By you, By Spotify, Downloaded

Sort Options:

At the top, click on the drop down menu to change the sort order of the list under "Sort by".

• Recents
• Recently Added
• Alphabetical
• Creator

When the "Playlists" filter is selected, you have the option to see your playlists in your own custom order.

• Custom Order

When the "Podcasts & Shows" filter is selected, you have the following option:

• Recently Updated

View Options:

At the top, click on the drop down menu to change the view of the list under "View as".

• Compact (view text only without art covers)
• List
• Grid (bigger art covers)

Flexible Sizing:

You can hover over and click on the right edge of the sidebar to drag it to your preferred width. You can also fully expand the sidebar by clicking the arrow button at the top, and fully collapse the sidebar by clicking on the "Your Library" heading to see only art covers.

In the expanded library view, you have options for list view, compact view, and a grid view. The list and compact views show you more details in 2 columns, Date Added and Last Played, and the grid view allows you to see larger art covers.

FAQ:

This section will answer your frequently asked questions and will be updated with the latest answers.

Related help articles on the support website:

• Your Library   • Sort and filter   • Keyboard Shortcuts

Can I view the Your Library page in the main browsing area like before?

• Unfortunately, the old Your Library page in the main browsing area is being discontinued with the release of the new Your Library sidebar. You can adjust the size of the Your Library sidebar to be bigger and you can also enable the "grid view" if you would like to see bigger art covers.

How do I see only my playlists in the sidebar like I used to be able to, I can't drag and move my playlists or folders anymore?

• In the left "Your Library" sidebar, click on the "Playlists" filter at the top.

  
  Then, in the sort options drop down menu select "Custom Order". You will then see your previous playlist order and be able to move your playlists and folders like before.

  
  Your currently chosen filters and sort options will be remembered across restarts of the desktop app.

I don't want to see art cover images in the sidebar, how do I turn them off?

• If you would like to only see text in the Your Library sidebar (no art covers), go to the drop down menu and at the bottom of the menu click on "Compact" under "View as".
  
  

How do I get the album art to expand in the bottom left corner like before? When I try to expand the album art, it opens the Now Playing View sidebar to the right.

• Unfortunately, that is no longer possible. When you expand the album art in the bottom left corner of the app, it will no longer hover over the Your Library sidebar. Instead, the new right sidebar will open up. You can resize the Now Playing View sidebar to your preferred size.
  
  

  You can read more information about this by going here.

How do I play or shuffle play a Playlist Folder now? (I don't see dedicated pages with play / shuffle options anymore)

• Right click on a Playlist Folder and select the "Play" option. To shuffle play, make sure to turn on the shuffle mode first before selecting the "Play" option in the right click menu.

How do I get to my Local Files now?

• In the left "Your Library" sidebar, click on the "Playlists" filter at the top.

  
  Then, in the sort drop down select "Custom Order".
  
  The "Local Files" playlist will be near the top of the list under your pinned items (if any).

Feedback:

Where can I give my feedback about the new Your Library sidebar in the desktop app?

• We welcome your feedback about this change. The best way to share your feedback is to comment here in this thread.

[maxgags]

Local file accessibility is now extremely convoluted and hard to access when I want to find it, I feel like I need to jump through hoops and look for a solution online rather than just being able to see it at the top of my lists in the old library.

[thomasmills89]

Spotify still does not care.

Please vote on the idea to remove this mess:

https://community.spotify.com/t5/Live-Ideas/Move-the-Library-experience-out-of-the-side-bar/idi-p/55...

[ParentalControl]

Access the old Library menu in Web Player using this URL when signed in the website and book mark it. You can also override the desktop player by copy and pasting this link into the Desktop app search bar and press enter and force the page back:

https://open.spotify.com/collection/albums

[coldcav]

And now there isn’t even an indication of which songs you’ve liked. It’s legitimately mind blowing that Spotify spent time and money to make their app worse in every way imaginable. The old way of showing a heart next to a song once you liked it was perfect and didn’t need to change at all. First when they made this update the new checkmark icon would show next to a song once you’ve added it to ANY playlist, this was a stupid idea, I just want to know if I’ve liked a song or not but now it seems there’s no way of telling unless you are already trying to add it to a playlist. On the off chance that a Spotify employee is actually reading this you should be embarrassed for creating such a horrible app and continuing to make it worse in any way you can all while removing and reorganizing features for no reason.

Just admit that you guys did a terrible job and made a bunch of unnecessary updates that no one likes or wants and go back to the old UI.

[xkx]

This sidebar is useless because it doesn't show your recent albums you were listening to on mobile.

[Huothar]

Clearly the developers tried this piece**bleep** they call new UI with new accounts only. Or taking by example people who has no more than 30 artists in their library. If you have a long list curated since the early 2010's you're basically **bleep**ed.

[saturninesoul]

Why the **bleep** can't i just arrange my playlistst in the order I want to? Why is that a problem that needed to get rid of?

[Amphibax]

Why can't you let the old UI stay?! It was so much better.

[ar2oor]

Is there any way to disable entering "inside" playlist group on sidebar? I tried with modifiers like ctrl, shift, alt but it always enters inside 😕

It's annoying, i can't double click on playlist group to start playing it, i must click right mouse and select "play".

Also, back button don't work on sidebar, it always correspondes to main window!

This new UI is very frustrating! 

[reg091]

Plan

Premium

Country

England

Device

Phones, laptop, tablet

Operating System

Android, Windows 10, Winidows 11

My Question or Issue

I pay for Spotify so that I can:
1) Find albums from the vast catalogue that I want to listen to.

2) Listen to them.

This has to be the worst media player UI ever! All I seem to have all over my screen is recommendations (!) and "made for you" playlists (!!). How do I turn this stuff off please so that all I have is:

1) A search box

2) My library

3) Playback controls

I'm an adult, I can choose what I want to listen to. It's insulting enough that an algorithm does that, but that it dominates the screen real estate is inexcusable in UI design.

Even worse is this "playlist" business. Why should anyone want to put tracks from different albums (or even different artists!!) together to listen to?!!! And yet Spotify dominates my screen with algorithm generated playlists!

How to turn all this cr#p off please and make it a usable media player?

[rednblu]

Absolutely!  I am with you!  Well said!

Can you use 1) playlists that you make by artist or album or genre?-- combined under folders and sub-folders?

Then you can right click on the ParentFolder level of the folder that you made and 1) play straight through in the order that you made the tracks within the contained playlists of the folder or 2) shuffle all of the tracks and sub-folders contained under the Parent Folder.

Next, you can check the PlayQueue to preview whether or not you like that order of tracks you selected-- and you can shift around the tracks and albums and playlists until the PlayQueue looks exactly like what you selected, yes?

Will that work for you?

[reg091]

Thank you. I am not a fan of playlists; I want to choose an album and listen to it. I see a media player as being the equivalent as playing your home music collection. The only reason I want Spotify is for the catalogue.

My main problem is the huge amount of the UI that is taken up with stuff I haven't chosen to be there. I am basically just working with the small area on the left that is "my library". Eighty percent of the screen is of no use to me, is insulting to me.

 And that's only after I've been through the torture of trying to find an album I want to add to My Library; searching for Artist and then selecting Albums only shows some of their albums ,I think the "most popular!" (Again my choices are being dictated to me by other people/algorithms).  But all the albums are on Spotify: you need to know the name of the album and search for that - crazy if you want to check out albums you didn't know about by an artist.

The whole thing is a disaster area.

[saturninesoul]

The shortcut Shift+Alt+4 puts the library in the right screen. That is the only way to make the new UI usable.

It is stupid that Spotify does not put this feature in without a shortcut and that user in the forum have to tell other users, because apparently Spotify people are not allowed to talk about it. 😄

[Gurrra]

Interesting that that interface still exists but is totally hidden from the user. So thank you for that shortcut, it's better than nothing!

But still, Spotify:  PLEASE revert back to the old way, have links in the sidebar to Albums, Artists and Songs that shows up in the big window to the right. As it is now it's really bad, especially since I want my playlists in a list compact mode with no art and my album WITH art and in either a list or a grid. As it is now it doesn't work at all, so please do revert it

[joriswitteman]

I for one welcome the compact playlist view. Together with nesting, I've finally got my very playlist heavy library set up in an accessible way. My only hope is that Spotify will add the compact view to mobile too, where screen real estate is even scarcer.

[Gurrra]

The playlist view have always been compact, it wasn't until the latest UI update that it went uncompact with an option to make it compact again. The problem is that they combined the rest of the library with the playlist which is not what everyone wants.

Though I agree that a compact playlist view on mobile would be very nice, but personally I still want albums with album art since it makes it way faster and easier to find what you are looking for.

[ar2oor]

Yes, playlist shouldn't be connected with rest of the library, it's mess and it's over-engineered. In my opinion playlist should be simple separate tree view.

It's big mistake that they are trying to create one design for desktop and mobile. What the **bleep**?

To Spotify Programmers: Additionally i thing "virtual scroll" is slow in library view and is unnecessary. Just because a technology exists doesn't mean it should be pushed everywhere, where are your "team leaders"?

[Necrite]

You're increasing the subscription price without any compensation - thank you, cash cows - and the quality is getting poorer all the time.

You still haven't hired any UI/UX experts, or any competent developers for that matter.

Have you ever used your application in-house? Have you at least tested it a little? No.
Or do you use another music service? If so, which one?

The playlist view is a disaster, impossible to navigate, empty block, you have to wait for minutes.
Impossible to go back to parent folder until playlists are loaded.

Not even "custom sorting" by default, forced to go directly IN a directory. wth?!

I can't even organize my playlists the way I want.

Just unusable.

I don't even understand how it can't work properly, it's just a stupid TreeView, seriously!

And why it's so slow...

If you worked in a real company, you'd be fired for incompetence.

[Rimšiakas]

Hey Spotify! Quit updating this mess and start working on reverting it.

This is not a case of people being resistant to change. It has been months and people still haven't gotten used to it. It's just terrible UI.

If reverting things goes against your policy then alright, don't revert. Take the old UI as a design sketch and redevelop it then.

[tonspender_]

Spotify! What are you doing?!

I used to be able to quickly view my saved albums with just ONE click. While also having a compact list view of my playlist in the sidebar. Now I have to:

- expand the sidebar

- unselect playlist

- select albums

- change the view from 'compact' to 'grid'

And even then it looks inferior than before. How in the world is that an improvement?! At least through this thread I learned about this hidden shortcut. But who knows how long that will still work.

This change is so bad.